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Why do I have to shut my pc down to get Firefox to work properly?

  • 1 reply
  • 1 has this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by mattcamp

colemyst
colemyst
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This is happening more and more.Firefox freezes when I start typing. Resetting Firefox doesn't help, safe mode doesn't help, it's not my few add-ons or extensions- already checked, have run multiple virus scans, and malware scans, The only thing that helps is shutting down my pc - not restarting or hibernating - a full shut down. This is annoying though I have done it for a while but now windows is messing with my desktop - dumping them all together and in no sensible order. Lots of people are complaining about that too. i like Firefox but it only happens with them. I really don't want to use Chrome or Bing but I am not going to keep wasting hours and hours trying to find answers to this annoyance. Could you please help? My pc is HP Pavillion 21 all-in-one desktop, Windows 10,

This is happening more and more.Firefox freezes when I start typing. Resetting Firefox doesn't help, safe mode doesn't help, it's not my few add-ons or extensions- already checked, have run multiple virus scans, and malware scans, The only thing that helps is shutting down my pc - not restarting or hibernating - a full shut down. This is annoying though I have done it for a while but now windows is messing with my desktop - dumping them all together and in no sensible order. Lots of people are complaining about that too. i like Firefox but it only happens with them. I really don't want to use Chrome or Bing but I am not going to keep wasting hours and hours trying to find answers to this annoyance. Could you please help? My pc is HP Pavillion 21 all-in-one desktop, Windows 10,

All Replies (1)

mattcamp
mattcamp
more options

That can be due to driver issues, to malware or to too many autostarting programs.

Try disabling graphics hardware acceleration. Since this feature was added to Firefox, it has gradually improved, but there still are a few glitches.

You will need to restart Firefox for this to take effect so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.,) then perform these steps:

  1. Click the menu button New Fx Menu and select Options on Windows or Preferences on Mac or Linux.
  2. In Firefox 54 and below: Select the Advanced panel and then the General tab.
  3. Uncheck Use hardware acceleration when available.
  4. Restart Firefox and see if the problems persist.

In Firefox 55, the hardware acceleration setting moved from the Advanced panel General tab to the General panel, under the new Performance section. You first have to UNcheck the "Use recommended performance settings" checkbox to see the "Use hardware acceleration when available" setting.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

If the problem is resolved, you should check for updates for your graphics driver by following the steps mentioned in these Knowledge base articles:

Thank you.